From en.wikipedia.org:
[Categorization of nouns and modifiers by function] [Case system]
[date=November 2020] [Grammatical categories]
A GRAMMATICAL CASE is a category of nouns and noun modifiers (determiners,
adjectives, participles, and numerals) that corresponds to one or more
potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording.[1] In
various languages, nominal groups consisting of a noun and its modifiers
belong to one of a few such categories. For instance, in English, one says _I
see them_ and _they see me_: the nominative pronouns _I/they_ represent the
perceiver, and the accusative pronouns _me/them_ represent the phenomenon
perceived. Here, nominative and accusative are cases, that is, categories of
pronouns corresponding to the functions they have in representation.
English has largely lost its inflected case system but personal pronouns still
have three cases, which are simplified forms of the nominative, accusative
(including functions formerly handled by the dative) and genitive cases. They
are used with personal pronouns: subjective case (I, you, he, she, it, we,
they, who, whoever), objective case (me, you, him, her, it, us, them, whom,
whomever) and possessive case (my, mine; your, yours; his; her, hers; its;
our, ours; their, theirs; whose; whosever).[2][3] Forms such as _I_, _he_ and
_we_ are used for the subject (" I kicked John"), and forms such as _me_,
_him_ and _us_ are used for the object ("John kicked ME").<!-- What about
vestigial/archaic adverbs like “whither” and “hither”? -->
As a language evolves, cases can merge (for instance, in Ancient Greek, the
locative case merged with the dative), a phenomenon known as
syncretism.[Clackson]
Languages such as Sanskrit, Latin, and Russian have extensive case systems,
with nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and determiners all inflecting (usually by
means of different suffixes) to indicate their case. The number of cases
differs between languages: for example, Modern Standard Arabic has three, as
well as modern English but for pronouns only[snd]while Hungarian is among
those with the most, with its 18 cases.
Commonly encountered cases include nominative, accusative, dative and
genitive. A role that one of those languages marks by case is often marked in
English with a preposition. For example, the English prepositional phrase
_with (his) foot_ (as in "John kicked the ball with his foot") might be
rendered in Russian using a single noun in the instrumental case, or in
Ancient Greek as [grc] ([τῷ ποδί], meaning "the foot") with both words[snd]the
definite article, and the noun [grc] ([πούς]) "foot"[snd]changing to dative
form.
More formally, case has been defined as "a system of marking dependent nouns
for the type of relationship they bear to their heads".<ref name=Blake>Blake,
Barry J. _Case_. Cambridge University Press: 2001.[p.1] Cases should be
distinguished from thematic roles such as _agent_ and _patient_. They are
often closely related, and in languages such as Latin, several thematic roles
are realised by a somewhat fixed case for deponent verbs, but cases are a
syntagmatic/phrasal category, and thematic roles are the function of a
syntagma/phrase in a larger structure. Languages having cases often exhibit
free word order, as thematic roles are not required to be marked by position
in the sentence.
** History
It is widely accepted that the Ancient Greeks had a certain idea of the forms
of a name in their own language. A fragment of Anacreon seems to prove this.
Grammatical cases were first recognized by the Stoics and from some
philosophers of the Peripatetic school.<ref
name=treccani>[url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/linguaggio ][4] The
advancements of those philosophers were later employed by the philologists of
the Library of Alexandria.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=treccani/>
** Etymology
The English word _case_ used in this sense comes from the Latin [la], which is
derived from the verb [la], "to fall", from the Proto-Indo-European root
_English: wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/ḱh₂d-_.[5] The Latin word is
a calque of the Greek [grc], [πτῶσις], lit. "falling, fall".[6] The sense is
that all other cases are considered to have "fallen" away from the nominative.
This imagery is also reflected in the word _declension_, from Latin [la], "to
lean", from the PIE root _*ḱley-_.
The equivalent to "case" in several other European languages also derives from
_casus_, including [fr] in French, [it] in Italian and [de] in German. The
Russian word [ru] (_padyézh_) is a calque from Greek and similarly contains a
root meaning "fall", and the German [de] and Czech [cs] simply mean "fall",
and are used for both the concept of grammatical case and to refer to physical
falls. The Dutch equivalent [nl] translates as 'noun case', in which 'noun'
has the older meaning of both 'adjective (noun)' and '(substantive) noun'.
The Finnish equivalent is [fi], whose main meaning is "position" or "place".
Similar to Latin, Sanskrit uses the term विभक्ति _(vibhakti)_[7] which may be
interpreted as the specific or distinct "bendings" or "experiences" of a word,
from the verb भुज् _(bhuj)_[8] and the prefix वि _(vi)_,[9] and names the
individual cases using ordinal numbers.
** Indo-European languages
Although not very prominent in modern English, cases featured much more
saliently in Old English and other ancient Indo-European languages, such as
Latin, Old Persian, Ancient Greek, and Sanskrit. Historically, the
Indo-European languages had eight MORPHOLOGICAL CASES, although modern
languages typically have fewer, using prepositions and word order to convey
information that had previously been conveyed using distinct noun forms.
Among modern languages, cases still feature prominently in most of the
Balto-Slavic languages (except Macedonian and Bulgarian[10]), with most having
six to eight cases, as well as Icelandic, German, Irish and Modern Greek,
which have four. In German, cases are mostly marked on articles and
adjectives, and less so on nouns. In Icelandic, articles, adjectives,
personal names and nouns are all marked for case, making it the most
conservative Germanic language.
The eight historical Indo-European cases are as follows, with examples either
of the English case or of the English syntactic alternative to case: [clear]
{| class="wikitable" |- !Case !Indicates !Sample case words !Sample sentence
!Interrogative !Notes |- |Nominative |Subject of a finite verb |we |_WE went
to the store._ |Who or what? |Corresponds to English's subject pronouns. |-
|Accusative |Direct object of a transitive verb |us,<br>for us,<br>the
(object) |_The clerk remembered US ._
_John waited FOR US at the bus stop._
_Obey THE LAW ._ |Whom or what? |Corresponds to English's object pronouns and
preposition _for_ construction before the object, often marked by a definite
article _the_. Together with dative, it forms modern English's oblique case.
|- |Dative |Indirect object of a verb |us,<br>to us,<br>to the (object) |_The
clerk gave US a discount._
_The clerk gave a discount TO US ._
_According TO THE LAW ..._ |Whom or to what? ||Corresponds to English's object
pronouns and preposition _to_ construction before the object, often marked by
a definite article _the_. Together with accusative, it forms modern English's
oblique case. |- |Ablative |Movement away from |from us |_The pigeon flew
FROM US to a steeple._ |Whence? From where/whom? | |- |Genitive |Possessor of
another noun |'s,
of (the) |_JOHN'S book was on the table._
_The pages OF THE BOOK turned yellow._
_The table is made OUT OF WOOD ._ |Whose? From what or what of? |Roughly
corresponds to English's possessive (possessive determiners and pronouns) and
preposition _of_ construction. |- |Vocative |Addressee |John |_JOHN , are you
all right?_
_Hello, JOHN!_
_O JOHN , how are you!_ (archaic) | |Roughly corresponds to the archaic use of
"O" in English. |- |Locative |Location, either physical or temporal |in
Japan,
at the bus stop,
in the future |_We live IN JAPAN ._
_John is waiting for us AT THE BUS STOP ._
_We will see what will happen IN THE FUTURE ._ |Where or wherein? When?
|Roughly corresponds to English prepositions _in_, _on_, _at_, and _by_ and
other less common prepositions. |- |Instrumental |A means or tool used
in/while performing an action |with a mop,
by hand |_We wiped the floor WITH A MOP ._
_This letter was written BY HAND ._ |How? With what or using what? By what
means? |Corresponds to English prepositions _by_, _with_ and _via_ as well as
synonymous constructions such as _using_, _by use of_ and _through_. |}
All of the above are just rough descriptions; the precise distinctions vary
significantly from language to language, and as such they are often more
complex. Case is based fundamentally on changes to the noun to indicate the
noun's role in the sentence – one of the defining features of so-called
fusional languages. Old English was a fusional language, but Modern English
does not work this way.
*** Modern English
Modern English has largely abandoned the inflectional case system of
Proto-Indo-European in favor of analytic constructions. The personal pronouns
of Modern English retain morphological case more strongly than any other word
class (a remnant of the more extensive case system of Old English). For other
pronouns, and all nouns, adjectives, and articles, grammatical function is
indicated only by word order, by prepositions, and by the "Saxon genitive"
(_-'s_).{{efn|The status of the possessive as an affix or a clitic is the
subject of debate.[11][12] It differs from the noun inflection of languages
such as German, in that the genitive ending may attach to the last word of the
phrase. To account for this, the possessive can be analysed, for instance as
a clitic construction (an "enclitic postposition"[13]) or as an
inflection[14][15] of the last word of a phrase ("edge inflection").[16]}}
Taken as a whole, English personal pronouns are typically said to have three
morphological cases:
- The _nominative case_ ( _subjective pronouns_ such as _I_ , _he_ , _she_ , _we_ ), used for the subject of a finite verb and sometimes for the complement of a copula .
- The _oblique case_ ( _object pronoun s_ such as _me_ , _him_ , _her_ , _us_ ), used for the direct or indirect object of a verb, for the object of a preposition, for an absolute disjunct, and sometimes for the complement of a copula.
- The _genitive case_ ( _possessive pronouns_ such as _my/mine_ , _his_ , _her/hers_ , _our/ours_ ), used for a grammatical possessor. This is not always considered to be a case; see [English possessive] .
Most English personal pronouns have five forms: the nominative case form, the
oblique case form, a distinct _reflexive_ or _intensive_ form (such as
_myself_, _ourselves_) which is based upon the possessive determiner form but
is coreferential to a preceding instance of nominative or oblique, and the
possessive case forms, which include both a _determiner_ form (such as _my_,
_our_) and a predicatively used _independent_ form (such as _mine_, _ours_)
which is distinct (with two exceptions: the third person singular masculine
_he_ and the third person singular neuter _it_, which use the same form for
both determiner and independent [_his car_, _it is his_]). The interrogative
personal pronoun _who_ exhibits the greatest diversity of forms within the
modern English pronoun system, having definite nominative, oblique, and
genitive forms (_who_, _whom_, _whose_) and equivalently-coordinating
indefinite forms (_whoever_, _whomever_, and _whosever_). The pronoun "where"
has a corresponding set of derived forms (_whither_, _whence_), but they're
considered archaic.
Although English _pronouns_ can have subject and object forms (he/him,
she/her), _nouns_ show only a singular/plural and a possessive/non-possessive
distinction (e.g. _chair_, _chairs_, _chair's_, _chairs ''' ); there is no
manifest difference in the form of _chair'' between "The chair is here."
(subject) and "I own the chair." (direct object), a distinction made instead
by word order and context.
** Hierarchy of cases
[Case hierarchy] Cases can be ranked in the following hierarchy, where a
language that does not have a given case will tend not to have any cases to
the right of the missing case:<ref name=Blake />[p.89]
nominative _or_ absolutive → accusative _or_ ergative → genitive → dative → locative _or_ prepositional → ablative _and/or_ instrumental → _others_ .
This is, however, only a general tendency. Many forms of Central German, such
as Colognian and Luxembourgish, have a dative case but lack a genitive. In
Irish nouns, the nominative and accusative have fallen together, whereas the
dative–locative, genitive, and vocative have remained separate. In many
modern Indo-Aryan languages, the accusative, genitive, and dative have merged
to an oblique case, but many of these languages still retain vocative,
locative, and ablative cases. Old English had an instrumental case, but not a
locative case.
** Case order
The traditional case order (nom-gen-dat-acc) was expressed for the first time
in _The Art of Grammar_ in the 2nd century BC: {{verse translation|Basa Sunda:
el:Τέχνη Γραμματική|There are five Cases, the right [nominative], the generic
[genitive], the dative, the accusative, and the vocative.[17]}}
Latin grammars, such as _Ars grammatica_, followed the Greek tradition, but
added the ablative case of Latin. Later other European languages also
followed that Graeco-Roman tradition.
However, for some languages, such as Latin, due to case syncretism the order
may be changed for convenience, where the accusative or the vocative cases are
placed after the nominative and before the genitive. For example: {| |- | |
{| class="wikitable" |+ Latin ! rowspan="2" | ! colspan="2" | [la]<br />water
[f.] ! colspan="2" | [la]<br />war [n.] |- ! Singular ! Plural ! Singular !
Plural |- ! Nominative | rowspan="2" | aqua || rowspan="2" | aquae |
rowspan="3" | bellum || rowspan="3" | bella |- ! Vocative |- ! Accusative |
aquam || aquās |- ! Genitive | rowspan="2" | aquae || aquārum | bellī ||
bellōrum |- ! Dative | rowspan="2" | aquīs | rowspan="2" | bellō ||
rowspan="2" | bellīs |- ! Ablative | aquā |} |}
For similar reasons, the customary order of the four cases in Icelandic is
nominative–accusative–dative–genitive, as illustrated below:
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" width=500px ! number || case
|| masculine || feminine || neuter || neuter |- ! rowspan=4 | singular ||
[nom.] | hattur || rowspan="3" | borg || rowspan="2" | glas || rowspan="2" |
gler |- ! [acc.] | hatt |- ! [dat.] | hatti || glasi || gleri |- ! [gen.] |
hatts || borgar || glass ||glers |- ! rowspan=4 | plural || [nom.] | hattar ||
rowspan="2" | borgir || rowspan="2" | glös || rowspan="2" | gler |- ! [acc.] |
hatta |- ! [dat.] | höttum || borgum || glösum ||gler(j)um |- ! [gen.] | hatta
|| borga || glasa || gler(j)a |}
Sanskrit similarly arranges cases in the order
nominative-accusative-instrumental-dative-ablative-genitive-locative-vocative.<ref
name=":4" /> The cases are individually named as the "first," "second,"
"third" and so on.<ref name=":4" /> For example, the common "when-then"
construction is called the सति सप्तमी _(Sati Saptami)_[18] or "The Good
Seventh" as it uses the locative, which is the seventh case.
** Case concord systems
In the most common<ref name=Blake /> case concord system, only the head-word
(the noun) in a phrase is marked for case. This system appears in many Papuan
languages as well as in Turkic, Mongolian, Quechua, Dravidian, Indo-Aryan, and
other languages. In Basque and various Amazonian and Australian languages,
only the phrase-final word (not necessarily the noun) is marked for case. In
many Indo-European, Finnic, and Semitic languages, case is marked on the noun,
the determiner, and usually the adjective. Other systems are less common. In
some languages, there is double-marking of a word as both genitive (to
indicate semantic role) and another case such as accusative (to establish
concord with the head noun).[19]
** Declension paradigms
[Declension]
Declension is the process or result of altering nouns to the correct
grammatical cases. Languages with rich nominal inflection (using grammatical
cases for many purposes) typically have a number of identifiable declension
classes, or groups of nouns with a similar pattern of case inflection or
declension. Sanskrit has six declension classes, whereas Latin is
traditionally considered to have five, and Ancient Greek three.[20] For
example, Slovak has fifteen noun declension classes, five for each gender (the
number may vary depending on which paradigms are counted or omitted, this
mainly concerns those that modify declension of foreign words; refer to
article).
In Indo-European languages, declension patterns may depend on a variety of
factors, such as gender, number, phonological environment, and irregular
historical factors. Pronouns sometimes have separate paradigms. In some
languages, particularly Slavic languages, a case may contain different groups
of endings depending on whether the word is a noun or an adjective. A single
case may contain many different endings, some of which may even be derived
from different roots. For example, in Polish, the genitive case has _-a, -u,
-ów, -i/-y, -e-_ for nouns, and _-ego, -ej, -ich/-ych_ for adjectives. To a
lesser extent, a noun's animacy or humanness may add another layer of
complexity. For example, in Russian:
{{fs interlinear|lang=ru|indent=2 | Кот ловит мышей | Kot-∅ lóvit myshéy. |
cat-NOM.AN. catches mice | (The) cat catches mice.}}
{{fs interlinear|lang=ru|indent=2 | Столб держит крышу | Stolb-∅ dérzhit
krýshu. | pillar-NOM.INAN holds roof | (The) pillar holds a/the roof)}}
vs.
{{fs interlinear|lang=ru|indent=2 | Пётр гладит кота | Pyotr gládit kot-á |
Peter strokes cat-ACC.AN | Peter strokes a/the cat}}
and
{{fs interlinear|lang=ru|indent=2 | Пётр ломает столб | Pyotr lomáyet stolb-∅
| Peter breaks pillar-ACC.INAN | Peter breaks a/the pillar}}
** Examples
*** Arabic
An example of a Standard Arabic case inflection is given below, using the
singular forms of the Arabic term for "book" [ar] _[ar]_:
- [ar] _[ar]_ ( Nominative ): [ar] _[ar]_ – (the book is useful)
- [ar] _[ar]_ ( Accusative ): [ar] _[ar]_ – (the science book is big)
- [ar] _[ar]_ ( Genitive ): [ar] _[ar]_ – (I went with the book)
The modern Arabic colloquial dialects have abandoned the grammatical cases of
Classical Arabic, and they are only used nowadays in Modern Standard Arabic.
Standard Arabic is the only living Semitic language that preserved the
complete Proto-Semitic grammatical cases and declension (ʾIʿrab). In some
dialects of Northern and Central Saudi Arabia, one encounters the nunation in
the -in form, e.g. [ar] _[ar]_, "a road" (as in [ar] _[ar]_ vs. the common
colloquial [ar] _[ar]_), apparently with the -i- of the former genitive, while
-u < -un is preserved in some Yemenite colloquials when the noun is
indeterminate (e.g. [ar] _[ar]_, "a house", but al-bayt, "the house").[21]
*** Australian Aboriginal languages
Australian languages represent a diversity of case paradigms in terms of their
alignment (i.e. nominative-accusative vs. ergative-absolutive) and the
morpho-syntactic properties of case inflection including where/how many times
across a noun phrase the case morphology will appear. For typical
r-expression noun phrases, most Australian languages follow a basic ERG-ABS
template with additional cases for peripheral arguments; however, many
Australian languages, the function of case marking extends beyond the
prototypical function of specifying the syntactic and semantic relation of an
NP to a predicate.[22] Dench and Evans (1988)[23] use a five-part system for
categorizing the functional roles of case marking in Australian languages.
They are enumerated below as they appear in Senge (2015):<ref name=":0" />
1. RELATIONAL : a suffix which represents syntactic or semantic roles of a noun phrase in clauses.
2. ADNOMINAL : a suffix which relates a noun phrase to another within the one noun phrase.
3. REFERENTIAL : a suffix which attaches to a noun phrase in agreement with another noun phrase which represents one of the core arguments in the clause.
4. SUBORDINATING : a suffix which attaches to elements of a subordinate clause. Its functions are: (i) specifying temporal or logical (typically, causal and purposive) relationships between two clauses (Temporal-subordinator); (ii) indicating coreferential relationships between arguments in the two clauses (Concord-subordinator).
5. DERIVATIONAL : a suffix which attaches to a bare stem before other case suffixes and create a new lexical item.
To illustrate this paradigm in action, take the case-system of Wanyjirra for
whose description Senge invokes this system. Each of the case markers
functions in the prototypical relational sense, but many extend into these
additional functions: {| class="wikitable" ! rowspan="2" | ! rowspan="2"
|Derivational ! rowspan="2" |Adnominal ! rowspan="2" |Relational ! rowspan="2"
|Referential ! colspan="2" |Subordinator |- !C-SUB* !T-SUB* |- !Ergative | |
|+ |+ |+ | |- !Dative | |+ |+ | |+ |+ |- !Locative | | |+ |+ | |+ |- !Allative
| | |+ | | |+ |- !Purposive | | |+ | | |+ |- !Ablative | | |+ | | | |-
!Elative |+ |+ |+ |+ | |+ |- !Comitative | | |+ | | | |- !Originative | |+ |+
| | | |- !Proprietive |+ |+ |+ | | | |- !Privative |+ |+ |+ | | | |} Wanyjirra
is an example of a language in which case marking occurs on all
sub-constituents of the NP; see the following example in which the
demonstrative, head, and quantifier of the noun phrase all receive ergative
marking:
{{interlinear|indent=2 | yalu-nggu mawun-du gujarra-lu ngu[=]wula yunbarn-ana
junba | DIST-ERG man-ERG two-ERG REAL[=]3.AUG.SBJ sing-PRES corroboree.ABS |
Those two men are singing corroboree.}}
However, this is by no means always the case or even the norm for Australian
languages. For many, case-affixes are considered special-clitics (i.e.
phrasal-affixes, see Anderson 2005[24]) because they have a singular fixed
position within the phrase.. For Bardi, the case marker usually appears on the
first phrasal constituent[25] while the opposite is the case for Wangkatja
(i.e. the case marker is attracted to the rightmost edge of the phrase).[26]
See the following examples respectively:
{{interlinear|indent=2 |top= BARDI<ref name=":1" /> | Boordiji-nim niiwandi
aamba i-na-m-boo-na aril | fat-ERG tall man 3-TR-PST-poke-REM.PST fish | The
tall fat man speared a fish.}}
{{interlinear|indent=2 |top= WANGKATJA<ref name=":2" />[27] | tjitji warta
purlkana-ngka nyinarra-nyi | child tree big-LOC sitting-? | 'The child is
sitting in the big tree.'}}
*** Basque
Basque has the following cases, with examples given in the indefinite,
definite singular, definite plural, and definite close plural of the word
_etxe_, "house", "home":
- absolutive ( _etxe, etxe A , etxe AK , etxe OK_ : "house, the / a house, (the / some) houses, these houses"),
- ergative ( _etxe K , etxe AK , etxe EK , etxe OK_ ),
- dative ( _etxe RI , etxe ARI , etxe EI , etxe OI_ ),
- genitive ( _etxe REN , etxe AREN , etxe EN , etxe ON_ ),
- destinative (or benefactive: _etxe RENTZAT , etxe ARENTZAT , etxe ENTZAT , etxe ONTZAT_ ),
- motivative (or causal: _etxe RENGATIK , etxe ARENGATIK , etxe ENGATIK , etxe ONGATIK_ ),
- sociative ( _etxe REKIN , etxe AREKIN , etxe EKIN , etxe OKIN_ ),
- instrumental ( _etxe Z , etxe AZ , etxe EZ , etxe OZ_ ),
- locative or inesive ( _etxe TAN , etxe AN , etxe ETAN , etxe OTAN_ ),
- ablative ( _etxe TATIK , etxe TIK , exte ETATIK , etxe OTATIK_ ),
- adlative ( _etxe TARA , etxe RA , etxe ETARA , etxe OTARA_ ),
- directional adlative ( _etxe TARANTZ , etxe RANTZ , etxe ETARANTZ , etxe OTARANTZ_ ),
- terminative adlative ( _etxe TARAINO , etxe RAINO , etxe ETARAINO , etxe OTARAINO_ ),
- locative genitive ( _etxe TAKO , etxe KO , etxe ETAKO , etxe OTAKO_ ),
- prolative (etxe TZAT ), only in the indefinite grammatical number,
- partitive (etxe RIK ), only in the indefinite grammatical number, and
- distributive ( _Bost liburu ikasle KO banatu dituzte_ , "They have handed out five books to each student"), only in the indefinite grammatical number.
Some of them can be re-declined, even more than once, as if they were nouns
(usually, from the genitive locative case), although they mainly work as noun
modifiers before a noun clause:
- _etxearena_ (that which is of the house), _etxearenarekin_ (with the one which pertains to the house),
- _neskarentzako_ (which is for the girl), _neskarentzakoan_ (in the one which is for the girl),
- _neskekiko_ (which is with the girls), _neskekikoa_ (the one which is for the girls),
- _arazoarengatiko_ (which is because of the problem), _arazoarengatikoak_ (the ones which are due to the problems),
- _zurezkoaz_ (by means of the wooden one),
- _etxeetakoaz_ (about the one which is in the houses), _etxeetakoari_ (to the one which is in the houses),
- _etxetiko_ (which comes from the house), _etxetikoa_ (the one which comes from the house), etxetikoari (to the one which comes from the house),
- _etxeetarako_ (which goes to the houses), _etxeetarakoa_ (the one which goes to the houses), _etxeetarakoaz_ (about the one which goes to the houses),
- _etxeranzko_ (which goes towards the house), _etxeranzkoa_ (the one which goes to the house), _etxeranzkoarena_ (the one which belongs to the one which goes to the house),
- _etxerainoko_ (which goes up to the house), _etxerainokoa_ (the one which goes up to the house), _etxerainokoarekin_ (with the one which goes up to the houses)...
*** German
In German, grammatical case is largely preserved in the articles and
adjectives, but nouns have lost many of their original endings. Below is an
example of case inflection in German using the masculine definite article and
one of the German words for "sailor".
- [de] ( nominative ) "the sailor" [ as a subject ] (e.g. _Der Seemann steht da_ – the sailor is standing there)
- [de] ( genitive ) "the sailor's / [ of ] the sailor" (e.g. [de] – the name of the sailor is Otto)
- [de] ( dative ) " [ to/for ] the sailor" [ as an indirect object ] (e.g. [de] – I gave a present to the sailor)
- [de] ( accusative ) "the sailor" [ as a direct object ] (e.g. [de] – I saw the sailor)
An example with the feminine definite article with the German word for
"woman".
- _d IE Frau_ ( nominative ) "the woman" [ as a subject ] (e.g. _Die Frau isst_ - the woman is eating)
- _d ER Frau_ ( genitive ) "the woman's / [ of ] the woman" (e.g. _Die Katze der Frau ist weiß_ - the cat of the woman is white)
- _d ER Frau_ ( dative ) " [ to/for ] the woman" [ as an indirect object ] (e.g. _Ich gab der Frau ein Geschenk_ - I gave a present to the woman)
- _d IE Frau_ ( accusative ) "the woman" [ as a direct object ] (e.g. _Ich sah die Frau_ - I saw the woman)
An example with the neuter definite article with the German word for "book".
- _d AS Buch ( nominative )_ "the book" [ as a subject ] (e.g. _Das Buch ist gut -_ the book is good)
- _d ES Buch (E)S_ ( genitive ) "the book's/ [ of ] the book" (e.g. _Die Seiten des Buchs sind grün_ - the pages of the book are green)
- _d EM Buch (E)_ ( dative ) " [ to/for ] the book" [ as an indirect object ] (e.g. _Ich gab dem Buch einen Titel_ - I gave the book a title)
- _d AS Buch_ ( accusative ) "the book" [ as a direct object ] (e.g. _Ich sah das Buch_ - I saw the book)
Proper names for cities have two genitive nouns:
- _der Hauptbahnhof Berlin S_ (primary genitive ) "the main train station of Berlin"
- _der Berlin ER Hauptbahnhof_ (secondary genitive ) "Berlin's main train station"
*** Hindi-Urdu
Hindi-Urdu (Hindustani) has three noun cases, the _nominative,_ _oblique_, and
_vocative_ cases. The vocative case is now obsolete (but still used in
certain regions[date=March 2023]) and the oblique case doubles as the vocative
case. The pronoun cases in Hindi-Urdu are the _nominative_, _ergative_,
_accusative, dative_, and two _oblique_ cases..[28][29] The case forms which do
not exist for certain pronouns are constructed using primary postpositions (or
other grammatical particles) and the oblique case (shown in parentheses in the
table below).
The other cases are constructed adpositionally using the case-marking
postpositions using the nouns and pronouns in their oblique cases. The
oblique case is used exclusively with these 8 case-marking postpositions of
Hindi-Urdu forming 10 grammatical cases, which are: _ergative_ ने (ne),
_dative_ and _accusative_ को (ko), _instrumental_ and _ablative_ से (se),
_genitive_ का (kā), _inessive_ में (mẽ), _adessive_ पे (pe), _terminative_ तक
(tak), _semblative_ सा (sā).[30] {| |valign="top"| {| class="wikitable" !
colspan="2" rowspan="2" |_Noun_<br>_cases_ ! colspan="2" |_Masculine_ !
colspan="2" |_Feminine_ |- !_boy_ !_tree_ !_girl_ !_mother_ |- | rowspan="3" |
_SINGULAR_ |Nominative |<small>लड़का</small> lar̥kā | rowspan="4"
|<small>पेड़</small> per̥ | rowspan="3" |<small>लड़की</small> lar̥kī |
rowspan="3" |<small>माता</small> mātā |- |Oblique | rowspan="3"
|<small>लड़के</small> lar̥ke |- |Vocative |- | rowspan="3" |'''_Plural'''_
|Nominative |<small>लड़कियाँ</small> lar̥kiyã |<small>माताएँ</small> mātaẽ |-
|Oblique | rowspan="2" |<small>लड़कों</small> lar̥kõ | rowspan="2"
|<small>पेड़ों</small> per̥õ | rowspan="2" |<small>लड़कियों</small> lar̥kiyõ
|<small>माताओं</small> mātāõ |- |Vocative |<small>माताओ</small> mātāo |}
|valign="top"| {| class="wikitable" ! rowspan="3" |_Pronoun_<br>_cases_ !
colspan="2" |_1st Person_ ! colspan="3" |_2nd Person_ |- ! rowspan="2"
|_Singular_ ! rowspan="2" |_Plural_ !_Singular_ ! colspan="2" |_Singular &
Plural_ |- !_Intimate_ !_Familiar_ !_Formal_ |- |Nominative
|<small>मैं</small> ma͠i |<small>हम</small> ham |<small>तू</small> tū
|<small>तुम</small> tum |<small>आप</small> āp |- |Ergative
|<small>मैंने</small> ma͠ine |<small>हमने</small> hamne |<small>तूने</small>
tūne |<small>तुमने</small> tumne |<small>आपने</small> āpne |- |Accusative |
rowspan="2" |<small>मुझे</small> mujhe | rowspan="2" |<small>हमें</small> hamẽ
| rowspan="2" |<small>तुझे</small> tujhe | rowspan="2" |<small>तुम्हें</small>
tumhẽ | rowspan="2" |<small>(आपको)</small> āpko |- |Dative |- |Oblique
|<small>मुझ</small> mujh |<small>हम</small> ham |<small>तुझ</small> tujh
|<small>तुम</small> tum |<small>आप</small> āp |-
|Oblique<br><small>(emphasised)</small> |<small>मुझी</small> mujhī
|<small>हमीं</small> hamī̃ |<small>तुझी</small> tujhī |<small>तुम्हीं</small>
tumhī̃ |<small>(आप ही)</small> āp hī |} | {| class="wikitable" ! rowspan="3"
|_Pronoun_<br>_cases_ ! colspan="4" |_Demonstrative_ ! colspan="2" |_Relative_
! colspan="2" |_Interrogative_ |- ! colspan="2" |_Proximal_ ! colspan="2"
|_Distal_ ! rowspan="2" |_Singular_ ! rowspan="2" |_Plural_ ! rowspan="2"
|_Singular_ ! rowspan="2" |_Plural_ |- !_Singular_ !_Plural_ !_Singular_
!''Plural'' |- |Nominative<br><small>(colloquial)</small> | colspan="2"
|<small>ये</small> ye | colspan="2" |<small>वो</small>
vo | colspan="2" rowspan="2" |<small>जो</small> jo | colspan="2" rowspan="2"
|<small>कौन, क्या</small><sup> 1</sup> kaun, kyā |-
|Nominative<br><small>(literary)</small> |<small>यह</small> yah
|<small>ये</small> ye |<small>वह</small> vah |<small>वे</small> ve |-
|Ergative |<small>इसने</small> isne |<small>इन्होंने</small> inhõne
|<small>उसने</small> usne |<small>उन्होंने</small> unhõne
|<small>जिसने</small> jisne |<small>जिन्होंने</small> jinhõne
|<small>किसने</small> kisne |<small>किन्होंने</small> kinhõne |- |Accusative |
rowspan="2" |<small>इसे</small> ise | rowspan="2" |<small>इन्हें</small> inhẽ
| rowspan="2" |<small>उसे</small> use | rowspan="2" |<small>उन्हें</small>
unhẽ | rowspan="2" |<small>जिसे</small> jise | rowspan="2"
|<small>जिन्हें</small> jinhẽ | rowspan="2" |<small>किसे</small> kise |
rowspan="2" |<small>किन्हें</small> kinhẽ |- |Dative |- |Oblique
|<small>इस</small> is |<small>इन</small> in |<small>उस</small> us
|<small>उन</small> un |<small>जिस</small> jis |<small>जिन</small> jin
|<small>किस</small> kis |<small>किन</small> kin |-
|Oblique<br><small>(emphasised)</small> |<small>इसी</small> isī
|<small>इन्हीं</small> inhī̃ |<small>उसी</small> usī |<small>उन्हीं</small>
unhī̃ |<small>(जिस भी)</small> jis bhī |<small>(जिन भी)</small> jin bhī
|<small>किसी</small> kisī |<small>किन्हीं</small> kinhī̃ |} |- | colspan="3"
|<sup> 1</sup> _कौन_ _(kaun) is the animate interrogative pronoun and क्या
(kyā) is the inanimate interrogative pronoun._ |- | colspan="3"
|'''''Note:{"content": "'''", "type": "DELIM", "wikinode": "WikiDelimNode"}
Hindi lacks 3rd person personal pronouns and to compensate the demonstrative
pronouns are used as 3rd person personal pronouns.'' |}
*** Latin
An example of a Latin case inflection is given below, using the singular forms
of the Latin term for "cook", which belongs to Latin's second declension
class.
- [la] ( nominative ) " [ the ] cook" [ as a subject ] (e.g. [la] – the cook is standing there)
- [la] ( genitive ) " [ the ] cook's / [ of the ] cook" (e.g. [la] – the cook's name is Claudius)
- [la] ( dative ) " [ to/for the ] cook" [ as an indirect object ] (e.g. [la] – I gave a present to the cook)
- [la] ( accusative ) " [ the ] cook" [ as a direct object ] (e.g. [la] – I saw the cook)
- [la] ( ablative ) " [ by/with/from/in the ] cook" [ in various uses not covered by the above ] (e.g. [la] – I am taller than the cook: ablative of comparison)
- [la] ( vocative ) " [ you ] the cook" [ addressing the object ] (e.g. [la] – I thank you, cook)
For some toponyms, a seventh case, the locative, also exists, such as [la] (in
Mediolanum).
The Romance languages have largely abandoned or simplified the grammatical
cases of Latin. Much like English, most Romance case markers survive only in
pronouns.
*** Lithuanian
Typically in Lithuanian, only the inflection changes for the seven different
grammatical cases:
- Nominative ( _[lt]_ ): [lt] – [lt] – "This is a dog."
- Genitive ( _[lt]_ ): [lt] – [lt] – "Tom took the dog's bone."
- Dative ( _[lt]_ ): [lt] – [lt] – "He gave the bone to another dog."
- Accusative ( _[lt]_ ): [lt] – [lt] – "He washed the dog."
- Instrumental ( _[lt]_ ): [lt] – [lt] – He scared the cats with (using) the dog.
- Locative ( _[lt]_ ): [lt] – [lt] – "We'll meet at the White Dog (Cafe)."
- Vocative ( _[lt]_ ): [lt] – [lt] – "He shouted: Hey, dog!"
*** Hungarian
Hungarian declension is relatively simple with regular suffixes attached to
the vast majority of nouns. The following table lists all of the cases used
in Hungarian.
{| class="wikitable" |+ [HU] – house, [hu] – two |- ! Case ! Meaning ! Suffix
! Example ! Meaning of the example |- |Nominative case | subject | [∅] |[hu] |
house (as a subject) |- |Accusative case | direct object | [hu] |[hu] | house
(as an object) |- |Dative case | indirect object | [hu] |[hu] | to the house
|- |Genitive case |possession |[hu] |[hu] |of the house (belonging to) |-
|Instrumental-comitative case | with | [hu] (Assim.) |_házzal_ | with the
house |- |Causal-final case | for, for the purpose of | [hu] | [hu] | for the
house |- |Translative case | into (used to show transformation) | [hu]
(Assim.) |_házzá_ | [turn] into a house |- |Terminative case | as far as, up
to | [hu] |[hu] | as far as the house |- |Illative case |into (location) |
[hu] |[hu] |into the house |- |Adessive case |at |[hu] |[hu] |at the house |-
|Ablative case |from (away from) |[hu] |[hu] |(away) from the house |-
|Elative case |from (out of) |[hu] |[hu] |from the inside of the house |-
|Sublative case |onto (movement towards a thing) |[hu] |[hu] |onto the house
|- |Superessive case |on/upon (static position) |[hu] |[hu] |on top of the
house |- |Delative case |from (movement away from a thing) |[hu] |[hu] |from
on top of the house, about the house |- |Temporal case |at (used to indicate
time or moment) |[hu] |[hu] |at two (o'clock) |- |Sociative case |with
(archaic) |_-stul/-stül_ |_házastul_ |with the house |- |Locative case |in
|[hu] |_házban_ |in the house, inside the house |- |Types of |types or
variants of a thing |[hu] |[hu] |two types of houses |}
*** Russian
[Russian declension]
An example of a Russian case inflection is given below (with explicit stress
marks), using the singular forms of the Russian term for "sailor", which
belongs to Russian's first declension class.
- [ru] ( nominative ) " [ the ] sailor" [ as a subject ] (e.g. [ru] : The sailor is standing there)
- [ru] ( genitive ) " [ the ] sailor's / [ of the ] sailor" (e.g. [ru] : The sailor's son is an artist)
- [ru] ( dative ) " [ to/for the ] sailor" [ as an indirect object ] (e.g. [ru] : (They/Someone) gave a present to the sailor)
- [ru] ( accusative ) " [ the ] sailor" [ as a direct object ] (e.g. [ru] : (I) see the sailor)
- [ru] ( instrumental ) " [ with/by the ] sailor" (e.g. [ru] : (I) have a friendship with the sailor)
- [ru] ( prepositional ) " [ about/on/in the ] sailor" (e.g. [ru] : (I) think about the sailor)
Up to ten additional cases are identified by linguists, although today all of
them are either incomplete (do not apply to all nouns or do not form full word
paradigm with all combinations of gender and number) or degenerate (appear
identical to one of the main six cases). The most recognized additional cases
are locative ([ru]), partitive ([ru]), and two forms of vocative — old ([ru])
and neo-vocative ([ru]). Sometimes, so called count-form (for some countable
nouns after numerals) is considered to be a sub-case.
*** Sanskrit
Grammatical case was analyzed extensively in Sanskrit. The grammarian Pāṇini
identified six semantic roles or _kāraka_,[31] which are related to the
following eight Sanskrit cases in order:[32] {| | {| class="wikitable" |- !
colspan="2" rowspan="2" |Case ! colspan="3" |Root word: वृक्ष (vṛ́kṣa) [Tree]
|- !Singular !Dual !Plural |- | Kartṛ कर्तृ |Nominative |वृक्षः
vṛkṣaḥ | rowspan="3" |वृक्षौ vṛkṣau | rowspan="2" |वृक्षाः / वृक्षासः¹ vṛkṣāḥ
/ vṛkṣāsaḥ¹ |- |Sambodhana सम्बोधन |Vocative |वृक्ष
vṛkṣa |- | Karma कर्म |Accusative |वृक्षम् vṛkṣam |वृक्षान् vṛkṣān |- | Karaṇa
करण |Instrumental |वृक्षेण
vṛkṣeṇa | rowspan="3" |वृक्षाभ्याम्
vṛkṣābhyām |वृक्षैः / वृक्षेभिः¹ vṛkṣaiḥ / vṛkṣebhiḥ¹ |- | Sampradāna
सम्प्रदान |Dative |वृक्षाय vṛkṣāya | rowspan="2" |वृक्षेभ्यः vṛkṣebhyaḥ |- |
Apādāna अपादान |Ablative |वृक्षात् vṛkṣāt |- | Sambandha सम्बन्ध |Genitive
|वृक्षस्य vṛkṣasya | rowspan="2" |वृक्षयोः vṛkṣayoḥ |वृक्षाणाम् vṛkṣāṇām |- |
Adhikaraṇa अधिकरण |Locative |वृक्षे vṛkṣe |वृक्षेषु vṛkṣeṣu |} |- | ¹ Vedic |}
For example, in the following sentence _leaf_ is the agent (_kartā_,
nominative case), _tree_ is the source (_apādāna_, ablative case), and
_ground_ is the locus (_adhikaraṇa_, locative case). The declensions are
reflected in the morphemes _-āt_, _-am_, and _-au_ respectively.
{{interlinear|indent=2 | vṛkṣ-āt parṇ-am bhūm-au patati | { FROM the tree} {a
leaf} { ON the ground} falls |}}
However, the cases may be deployed for other than the default thematic roles.
A notable example is the passive construction. In the following sentence,
_Devadatta_ is the _kartā_, but appears in the instrumental case, and _rice_,
the _karman_, object, is in the nominative case (as subject of the verb). The
declensions are reflected in the morphemes _-ena_ and _-am_.
{{interlinear|indent=2 | devadatt-ena odan-am pacyate | { BY Devadatta} {the
rice} {is cooked} |}}
*** Tamil
The Tamil case system is analyzed in native and missionary grammars as
consisting of a finite number of cases.[33][34] The usual treatment of Tamil
case (Arden 1942)[35] is one in which there are seven cases: nominative (first
case), accusative (second case), instrumental (third), dative (fourth),
ablative (fifth), genitive (sixth), and locative (seventh). In traditional
analyses, there is always a clear distinction made between post-positional
morphemes and case endings. The vocative is sometimes given a place in the
case system as an eighth case, but vocative forms do not participate in usual
morphophonemic alternations and do not govern the use of any postpositions.
Modern grammarians, however, argue that this eight-case classification is
coarse and artificial<ref name="JSTOR600654" /> and that Tamil usage is best
understood if each suffix or combination of suffixes is seen as marking a
separate case.[36]
{| class="wikitable" |- ! colspan="2" | Case !! colspan="2" | Suffixes!!
Example: மன்னன் (mannan) [king] |- | First case ||Nominative|| colspan="2" | —
|
- மன்னன் (mannan)
|- | Second case ||Accusative||
- ai
|
- ஐ
|
- மன்னனை (mannanai)
|- | Third case ||Instrumental||
- al
- udan,
- kondu
|
- ஆல், உடன்
- கொண்டு
|
- மன்னனால் (mannanaal)
- மன்னனுடன் (mannanudan)
- மன்னனோடு (mannanOdu)
|- | Fourth case || Dative ||
- (u)kku
- poruttu
- aaga
|
- கு
- பொருட்டு
- ஆக
|
- மன்னனுக்கு (mannanukku)
- மன்னனின் பொருட்டு (mannanin poruttu)
- மன்னனுக்காக (mannanukkaaga)
|- | Fifth case || Ablative||
- in
- il
- ilrundu
|
- இன்
- இல்
- இருந்து
|
- மன்னனின் (mannanin)
- மன்னனில் (mannanil)
- மன்னனிலிருந்து (mannanilirundu)
|- | Sixth case || Genitive ||
- athu
- udaiya
|
- அது
- உடைய
|
- மன்னனது (mannanadu)
- மன்னனுடைய (mannanudaiya)
|- | Seventh case || Locative ||
- il
- idam
- kaṇ (Old Tamil)
|
- இல்
- இடம்
- கண் (Old Tamil)
|
- வீட்டில் (vīṭṭil)
- மன்னனிடம் (mannanidam)
|- |Eighth case ||Vocative||
- e
- a
|
- ஏ
- ஆ
|
- மன்னனே (mannanE)
- மன்னவா(mannavaa)
|}
*** Turkish
Modern Turkish has six cases (In Turkish _İsmin Hâlleri_).
{|class="wikitable" |- ! !Nominative<br>What? Who? ! Accusative[Yaşamı sevmek,
gazeteyi okumak, camları silmek, ödevini yapmak, sesini duymak, kapıyı açmak,
üzümü toplamak. NOT : Saat yedi YI beş geçiyor. Üç Ü çeyrek geçiyor.]<br>
What? Who? ! Dative[Saat dokuz A on var. On iki YE çeyrek var. Kaç liraya?
Kaça?][Edatlardan –e ile bağlananlar: bize göre, bize karşı, her şeye karşın,
kışa doğru, o konuya dair, size ait, yağmura karşın, iyiliklerine
karşılık][_ben, sen_ person pronouns: Ben-e> bana, sen-e>sana]<br> To whom? !
Locative[Kesir sayları kurar: Yüzde yirmi faiz, dörtte bir elma, yüzde yetmiş
devam, binde bir olasılık, yüzde on beş indirim.][-de+ek-fill örneği: –Yarın
evde misiniz? – Yok, okuldayım. – Şimdi neredesiniz? - Şu anda dersteyiz.
Otur-mak- TA -dır (oturuyor), otur-mak- TA -y-dı (oturuyordu), otur-mak- TA
-y-mış (oturuyormuş), otur-mak- TA -y-sa (oturuyorsa).]<br> Where? Whom? !
Ablative[Some prepositions of name connects with _–den_ : –den önce, - den
sonra, -den dolayı, - den beri, -den itibaren, -den başka vb. kahvaltıdan
önce, yemekten sonra, yağmurdan dolayı, öğleden beri, bügünden itibaren,
Ayça’dan başka.][-den+ek-fill (ait olma bildirir): Kimlerdensiniz? Alp te
bizdendir. (Bizim takımdandır.) Bulgaristan göçmenlerindenmiş. Sizin
öğrencilerinizdenim.]<br> Where from? From whom? Why? ! Genitive<br> Whose?
What's wrong? |- !Singular |çiçe K / (a/the) flower (nom) | çiçe ĞI / (a/the)
flower (acc) | çiçe ĞE / to (a/the) flower | çiçek TE / in (a/the) flower |
çiçe KTEN / from (a/the) flower | çiçe ĞIN / of (a/the) flower |- !Plural
|çiçe KLER / (the) flowers (nom) |çiçe KLERI / (the) flowers (acc) |çiçe KLERE
/ to (the) flowers |çiçe KLERDE / in (the) flowers |çiçe KLERDEN / from (the)
flowers |çiçe KLERIN / of (the) flowers |}
The accusative can exist only in the noun(whether it is derived from a verb or
not). For example, "Arkadaşlar bize gel MEYI düşünüyorlar." (Friends are
thinking of com ING to us).
The dative can exist only in the noun (whether it is derived from a verb or
not). For example, "Bol bol kitap oku MAYA çalışıyorum." (I try TO READ a lot
of books).[37]
** Evolution
As languages evolve, case systems change. In early Ancient Greek, for
example, the genitive and ablative cases of given names became combined,
giving five cases, rather than the six retained in Latin. In modern Hindi,
the cases have been reduced to three: a direct case (for subjects and direct
objects) and oblique case, and a vocative case.[38][39] In English, apart from
the pronouns discussed above, case has vanished altogether except for the
possessive/non-possessive dichotomy in nouns.
The evolution of the treatment of case relationships can be circular.<ref
name=Blake />[pp.167–174] Postpositions can become unstressed and sound like
they are an unstressed syllable of a neighboring word. A postposition can
thus merge into the stem of a head noun, developing various forms depending on
the phonological shape of the stem. Affixes are subject to various
phonological processes such as assimilation, vowel centering to the schwa,
phoneme loss, and fusion, and these processes can reduce or even eliminate the
distinctions between cases. Languages can then compensate for the resulting
loss of function by creating postpositions, thus coming full circle.
Recent experiments in agent-based modeling have shown how case systems can
emerge and evolve in a population of language users.[40] The experiments
demonstrate that language users may introduce new case markers to reduce the
cognitive effort required for semantic interpretation, hence facilitating
communication through language. Case markers then become generalized through
analogical reasoning and reuse.
** Linguistic typology
*** Morphosyntactic alignment
[Morphosyntactic alignment]
Languages are categorized into several case systems, based on their
_morphosyntactic alignment_—how they group verb agents and patients into
cases:
- _Nominative–accusative_ (or simply _accusative_ ): The argument (subject) of an intransitive verb is in the same case as the agent (subject) of a transitive verb; this case is then called the _nominative case_ , with the patient (direct object) of a transitive verb being in the _accusative case_ .
- _Ergative–absolutive_ (or simply _ergative_ ): The argument (subject) of an intransitive verb is in the same case as the patient (direct object) of a transitive verb; this case is then called the _absolutive case_ , with the agent (subject) of a transitive verb being in the _ergative case_ .
- _Ergative–accusative_ (or _tripartite_ ): The argument (subject) of an intransitive verb is in its own case (the _intransitive case_ ), separate from that of the agent (subject) or patient (direct object) of a transitive verb (which is in the ergative case or accusative case, respectively).
- _Active–stative_ (or simply _active_ ): The argument (subject) of an intransitive verb can be in one of two cases; if the argument is an _agent_ , as in "He ate", then it is in the same case as the agent (subject) of a transitive verb (sometimes called the _agentive case_ ), and if it is a _patient_ , as in "He tripped", then it is in the same case as the patient (direct object) of a transitive verb (sometimes called the _patientive case_ ).
- '' Trigger {"content": "''", "type": "DELIM", "wikinode": "WikiDelimNode"} : One noun in a sentence is the topic or focus. This noun is in the trigger case , and information elsewhere in the sentence (for example a verb affix in Tagalog ) specifies the role of the trigger. The trigger may be identified as the agent, patient, etc. Other nouns may be inflected for case, but the inflections are overloaded; for example, in Tagalog, the subject and object of a verb are both expressed in the genitive case when they are not in the trigger case.
The following are systems that some languages use to mark case instead of, or
in addition to, declension:
- POSITIONAL : Nouns are not inflected for case; the position of a noun in the sentence expresses its case.
- Adposition al: Nouns are accompanied by words that mark case.
*** Language families
- With a few exceptions, most languages in the Finno-Ugric family make extensive use of cases. Finnish has 15 cases according to the traditional description (or up to 30 depending on the interpretation). [41] However, only 12 are commonly used in speech (see Finnish noun cases and Finnish locative system ). Estonian has 14 (see Estonian locative system ) and Hungarian has 18, both with additional archaic cases used for some words.
- Turkic , Mongolic , and Tungusic languages also exhibit complex case systems. Since the abovementioned languages, along with Korean and Japanese , shared certain similarities, linguists proposed an Altaic family and reconstructed its case system; although the hypothesis had been largely discredited.
- The Tsez language , a Northeast Caucasian language , has 64 cases.
- The original version of John Quijada's constructed language Ithkuil has 81 noun cases, [42] and its descendant Ilaksh and Ithkuil after the 2011 revision both have 96 noun cases. [43] [44]
The lemma form of words, which is the form chosen by convention as the
canonical form of a word, is usually the most unmarked or basic case, which is
typically the nominative, trigger, or absolutive case, whichever a language
may have.
** See also
- Agreement (linguistics)
- Case hierarchy
- Declension
- Differential object marking
- Inflection
- List of grammatical cases
- Phi features
- Thematic relation
- Verbal case
- Voice (grammar)
** Notes
[Notelist]
** References
[30em]
*** General references
[Refbegin]
- [author-link1=James Clackson ]
- Ivan G. Iliev (2007) On the Nature of Grammatical Case ... (Case and Vocativeness) (see https://www.scribd.com/doc/133271099/Ivan-G-Iliev-CASE-AND-VOCATIVENESS) [url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160625084306/https://www.scribd.com/doc/133271099/Ivan-G-Iliev-CASE-AND-VOCATIVENESS ]
[Refend]
- Iliev, Iv. The Russian Genitive of Negation and Its Japanese Counterpart. International Journal of Russian Studies. 1, 2018 (see http://www.ijors.net/issue7_1_2018/articles/iliev.html)
** External links
[Grammatical cases]
- Grammatical Features Inventory (see http://www.smg.surrey.ac.uk/features/morphosyntactic/case/) – DOI : 10.15126/SMG.18/1.04
- World Atlas of Language Structures Online
- Chapter 28: Case Syncretism (see http://wals.info/chapter/28)
- Chapter 49: Number of Cases (see http://wals.info/chapter/49)
- Chapter 50: Asymmetrical Case Marking (see http://wals.info/chapter/50)
- Chapter 51: Position of Case Affixes (see http://wals.info/chapter/51)
- Chapter 98: Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases (see http://wals.info/chapter/98)
- Chapter 99: Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns (see http://wals.info/chapter/99)
[Grammatical cases] [Authority control]